Acute pancreatitis has a spectrum of severity ranging from a mild, self-limiting course treated with conservative methods, to a more aggressive variety characterized by sepsis, pancreatic necrosis and hemorrhage. It is estimated that 25% of patients with acute pancreatitis will progress in severity and require operative management or die. Pancreatic regenerating protein (Reg) may play a role in the pathophysiology of acute pancreatitis. The regeneration (Reg) family of proteins, which include Reg I (pancreatic stone protein) and Reg III (pancreatitis-associated protein—“PAP”), are a family of proteins minimally expressed in normal pancreas but strongly induced in acute pancreatitis. It has been previously demonstrated that antisense mediated gene knockdown of Reg/PAP in vivo worsens pancreatitis. In those studies, inhibition of Reg/PAP expression significantly worsened pancreatitis in that serum amylase activity, pancreas wet weight, reflecting edema, and serum C-reactive protein levels all increased in antisense-treated animals compared with controls. Furthermore, histopathologic evaluation of pancreas revealed worsened edema, elevated leukocyte infiltration, and fat necrosis after antisense-treatment compared with controls.
The present invention seeks to provide materials and methods which may be suitable for treating and diagnosing pancreatitis through the use of a truncated PAP.